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Government wants to scrap Clinial Excellence Awards (CEAs)

The government wants to scrap Clinical Excellence Awards locally and remove all those held by consultants, as part of the proposed new contract which is being negotiated with the BMA.

Keith Brent, the BMA’s lead negotiator on the consultant contract, said the government wants to replace CEAs with a new scheme which would offer three types of award: individual, team and organisational. The award scheme would be run by trusts with the involvement of LNCs (Local Negotiating Committees), and all consultants would be automatically enrolled in the scheme.

Awards would be made on the basis of consultants exceeding the objectives in their job plans. Existing local CEAs however would be removed from their ‘owners’. A consultant with eight local CEAs would lose £29,570 per annum, for example.Brent said: “We are currently discussing levels of pay protection for consultants affected by the removal of awards, and will advise members on the potential pensions impact of any changes to the scheme when details become clearer.”

The proposed contract that ensues will affect all consultants as well as new starters. The BMA is expecting to have proposals to put to vote in early 2016. Other areas of the negotiations include salary structure and duration of ‘unsocial hours’, with the government intent on implementing a ‘seven day service’. At the moment, any consultant who works between 7pm and 7am and all day Saturday and Sunday is paid a slightly increased rate of pay for that work. The government wants to redefine unsocial hours and set out rates of pay.

Clinical excellence awards for consultants (awarded by local committee):

Level 1 £2,957

Level 2 £5,914

Level 3 £8,871

Level 4 £11,828

Level 5 £14,785

Level 6 £17,742

Level 7 £23,656

Level 8 £29,570

Bronze or Level 9 £35,484

Silver and above are awarded by Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA)